Dirty Games

by HelenKay Dimon

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Someone is after you, which suggests they think you being here is a threat to their operation.” When Finn continued to stare but didn’t say anything, Justin tried again. “We told everyone you were here on a site visit. I made a camp-wide announcement about that. A completely innocuous reason and not related to shipments.”

  “Billy,” Finn said without any doubt. When Justin frowned at him, Finn threw up both hands. “What? He knows I want to see him again.”

  “Do you just like to say his name?” But the conclusion made sense. Justin didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t believe it, but he sensed he could no longer deny or ignore the possibility. Billy was the one person with definite knowledge on how to make a resources-for-weapons exchange. Maybe the lure of money reeled him in.

  “He knows I’m poking around and not just visiting. Kamir and Rania know. You know and Oliver knows.” Finn ticked off the possibilities on his fingers. “The only person with a big arrow pointed at his head is Billy.”

  Justin felt the need to put a few more options on the table. “All true, but gossip races around the camp with amazing speed. People could have overheard us talking. Someone could have said the wrong thing and figured it out.”

  “That’s a lot of dots to connect.” Finn groaned as he fell back on the bed and balanced an arm over his eyes.

  He looked good there. Eyes closed and body on display. The clothes did nothing to hide the muscles. Memories bombarded Justin. Images of Finn’s bed at the villa and all they did to and for each other there.

  While they were talking about issues, they might as well add one more. “Then there’s us. You’re hanging around. We’re clearly having a…thing.”

  Finn’s arm fell to the mattress and he stared up at Justin. “Thing?”

  “You know what I’m saying.” Thing seemed like a safe word. Justin was comfortable with calling what they had a thing.

  “But that fact points to me being here, staying here, for a reason other than the shipments. It shouldn’t tip anyone off.”

  The intense pounding in Justin’s chest came out of nowhere and every intelligent thought left his head. “Are you staying?”

  Finn jackknifed into a sitting position. “Kit and Ty.”

  Talk about a twist in the conversation. “What?”

  “I told them.”

  That was unwelcome news to Justin. “When?”

  “We were in the clinic.” Finn winced. “Fuck. Anyone could have overheard.”

  That expanded the pool of people who knew he was looking into the shipment issue. The bigger that circle got, the harder it would be to control. Finn had to know that. Justin couldn’t fathom him not knowing. “That was sloppy.”

  “Yeah, well. It wasn’t my best moment. I was in pain and then spaced out on meds.” Finn wiped a hand over his face. Frustration thrummed off him. “I know you’re close to both of them. Is there any chance—”

  “Kit is fighting to save lives. She deals with the damage from guns every day. There’s no way she’d put weapons into people’s hands. I don’t see it.” Justin wouldn’t bet on a lot, because people tended to show him the worst, but he’d bet on this. He’d caught a glimpse of Kit more than once after a disaster or violent episode. She felt every death.

  “Ty?”

  That question was tougher, but Justin couldn’t make that fit in his head either. He’d watched Ty comfort Kit. Seen them work together to grow the charity, expand it. Fight for it. He was a believer in the cause. “He’s been here forever. He’s a lifer. Settled in after the Peace Corps.”

  “That’s dedication.” Finn shrugged. “Also means he knows a lot of people and how to move things around.”

  “I don’t see it but someone on their team might not be so committed to the cause.” That was the only answer that made sense to Justin. Volunteers moved in and out for their own reasons.

  Finn stood up and held out his hand to Justin. “We need to talk with Kit and Ty.”

  Justin slipped his hand in Finn’s and pulled him back down to the bed. “Tomorrow.”

  “I thought this was an emergency and you wanted Alec gone and all that.”

  “All true.” Justin gave in and kissed him then; let the need exploding inside him break out. Aimed all that desire right at Finn and kissed him until they both were breathing heavy.

  “Damn.”

  Justin’s fingers trailed down the side of Finn’s cheek. “I don’t want us driving anywhere near dark. We also should wait and have Rania take us since she’s someone we both trust.”

  “So, tomorrow.” Finn put a hand against Justin’s chest and pushed. Eased him down until his back rested against the mattress. “I wonder what we should do in the meantime.”

  “Work?” Damn, Justin hoped Finn said no to that suggestion.

  Finn stretched out on top of him. Every part of his body covered a very ready Justin. Then Finn rubbed his lower half against him. “Are you sure?”

  Justin bit back a moan. “Technically, I plan on letting you do all the work. I’m just going to lie here and watch.”

  “You should do that naked.” Finn started unbuttoning Justin’s shirt.

  When Finn leaned down he blocked Justin’s view of anything but his face. And Justin was fine with that. “Lock the door.”

  * * *

  —

  The next morning Rania and Karim showed up. After an intense back-and-forth where Rania insisted they not travel, Finn won. He wanted Karim to take another day off, but he refused.

  Finn was willing to give in and have Karim ride along, but he was not convinced of Rania’s plan to let him drive. “Should he be doing this?”

  “He’s fine.” Rania touched Finn’s shoulder as she opened the back door and ushered him inside. “Trust me.”

  He did. He also heard the note of pleading in Rania’s voice. She usually controlled any emotion and stayed focused. He guessed that was for his benefit. No one wanted security personnel who were out of control or upset.

  “I’m not good at sitting around,” Karim said as he started the car.

  Finn understood that sentiment and Justin didn’t say anything. No one did for the next twenty miles. They drove out of the more congested area and headed for the medical complex, which sat halfway between their location and Oujda, a city in northeast Morocco near the border with Algiers. Parts of the trip led them through sparsely populated areas. More remote and less secure.

  Hills dotted with trees whizzed by outside the car window. Karim kept the speed steady. For long stretches they saw nothing but wide-open road with a single lane in each direction. A few cars passed them. The two Finn had been watching in the distance ahead picked up speed and disappeared from sight during a series of turns through a group of hills.

  “Is this safe?” Justin asked.

  “We had the route checked by a lead car. It’s two miles ahead of us. Two of our cars are following at a safe distance.” Rania pointed behind them.

  Finn turned to look but he didn’t see anything as they made a tight curve to the left. “There’s nothing like a nice drive into the country.”

  He had no idea if that was the right term. The lack of buildings and towns made the area feel more cut off. On parts of the road, dirt had blown or drifted, obscuring the edge.

  Fnideq was a beach town, a resort area with restaurants and tourists. Finn enjoyed staying there but couldn’t imagine tourists wandering out this far, especially since Rania had warned they might get stopped at a moving checkpoint and need to answer some questions. He’d done enough of that, but he’d manage it if he had to do more.

  Karim looked at Finn in the rearview mirror. “You haven’t had great luck lately with trips.”

  “The rumor is you’re cursed. Some people believe it’s true,” Rania said as she
shifted in her seat. “Not us, of course.”

  “Are you sure?” Justin mumbled the question as he looked out the window.

  But Finn latched onto something else. The word. This wasn’t the first time someone suggested he was cursed. “Ty said the same thing.”

  Justin looked at him. “He did?”

  Finn was about to answer when the car hit a bump, or rather a series of bumps, that had the vehicle bucking to the side. Karim fought with the wheel as loud pops echoed around the car. The wheels went into a rough skid.

  Finn’s first thought was another shooting, but the car spun as if they’d blown all four tires at once. Karim shouted and Justin grabbed for the headrest in front of him as the world turned end over end on him.

  Finn’s view blurred in a haze of beige as his body whipped around the car, penned in only by the seatbelt. Nausea welled up inside him and his neck felt disconnected from his body. When he opened his eyes again, he heard groaning. Nothing looked right and something cut deep into his midsection. He glanced to the side and saw Justin. That’s when Finn realized they were upside-down. The car had flipped over.

  He heard noises and shifting and saw Rania’s gun near his head. He reached for it just as the tension against his stomach let go. His body fell, bouncing on his already injured shoulder. “Fuck.”

  “Easy.” A male voice sounded from off to Finn’s side.

  He tried to turn but his body was jammed into the seat at a strange angle. Then arms were pulling on him, removing him from the car. Relief turned to panic as he realized this might not be a rescue. “Hey, stop.”

  “Not after we did all this work to grab you.”

  The voice sounded familiar but Finn’s ears were still popping. Everything—his vision, his hearing—came back to him slowly through the haze. He blinked as he was dragged free of the car and into the sunshine. He landed on his ass in the dirt and stayed there, trying to get his bearings.

  He saw it then. The mangled steel from where the car crashed on its hood. The strip of what looked like spikes tucked under the dirt and gravel strewn across the road. The combination of the sharp turn and debris must have hidden its placement and they hit it.

  He saw Rania’s hand lying in the broken glass from the window. Her fingers moved and he almost called out to her. But he didn’t want to give her away. Then his gaze flicked to Justin, or the space where he should have been. From his sitting position, Finn saw only a shadow and it was deathly still.

  Adrenaline roared through him. He found the energy to kick and shove. He got as far as his knees, ignoring the scraping against his skin through his pants and ready to do battle with whoever was standing there. Two sets of feet waited in front of him. He saw one man holding a gun. And a second.

  The gravel crunched next to him and another set of legs came into view. He glanced over, not knowing what to expect. Dizzy and sick was what he got.

  He blinked twice, not believing who was crouching next to him. “You?”

  Ty smiled. “Surprise.”

  Chapter 21

  Finn woke up not knowing how much time had passed. The last thing he remembered was seeing Ty’s image waver in front of him then the world went blank.

  Ty, the car. Rania and all that blood.

  And where the hell was Justin?

  Finn moved his head and pain flashed across the top of his eyes. A curse raced up his throat but he bit it back. That concussion he kept avoiding might finally have found him. He tried to lift his hand to touch what he expected was a big knot on the back of his skull and his arm jerked, nearly bending him over double.

  Tied down. That was fucking great.

  He slowly opened his eyes and wished he hadn’t. He sat on the ground with his hands held together in front of him with a zip tie and his arms bound to his sides with rope.

  Lights set about ten feet apart lined the dirt wall, casting a shadowed glow on the area. A cable connected one light to the next until they disappeared along a bend in the tunnel.

  The space amounted to little more than a circle carved into rock. Pebbles crunched under his feet and ass. The hard ground was cool but unforgiving.

  Definitely a tunnel of some sort. An abandoned one. It could be anywhere, but he hoped he hadn’t left Morocco. It would be hard enough for anyone to find him. He didn’t see or hear anything, but every now and then bits of dirt would cascade from the ceiling.

  “Sorry for the accommodations but it’s not easy to hide a billionaire in Morocco.” Ty slipped out from the bend in the tunnel and stopped in front of Finn.

  Morocco. Finn took that as a good sign. Once he crossed international lines it might be impossible for anyone—even the people Drummond could afford—to track him down. Not that he thought he’d live long enough to be transferred anywhere.

  He had to burn through some time, stall. It was the only chance he had to break loose of the bindings on his wrists and arms. He’d attended the corporate kidnapping prevention class Alec insisted they take. He had some self-defense and other training, so he could break a zip tie. All he needed was room and a few seconds to gain his strength back. The rope strangling his body and choking the breath out of him was a different problem. A much bigger one.

  “Explain this to me. How does the Peace Corps guy turn into a gunrunner?” Not that Finn cared but keeping the conversation going was key here.

  Ty crouched in front of him, dangling the gun between his legs. “Practice.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing is black-and-white here.” Ty shrugged and the barrel of his gun moved but never aimed directly at Finn. “People need supplies. Other people need weapons. It’s an easy trade. Think of me as the facilitator.”

  Finn could think of a lot of words to describe Ty right now. Facilitator was not one of them. “Is that code for stealing? Because that’s what you’ve been doing from my trucks. Helping yourself then financially benefiting from it.”

  The asshole. He worked in a clinic and stole meds from injured people who needed them. Somewhere along the line Ty had gone wildly off course. A start in the Peace Corps, overseas working different jobs, moving around from charity to charity. People tagged him as the ultimate good guy. In reality, it likely was all a front. He had a fat bank account somewhere and a streak of luck that prevented him from ending up with a bullet in his brain, because that was the usual ending for people in this line of work. And Finn didn’t plan to mourn for him when it happened.

  “Admittedly, using your company’s shipments to hide weapons and get the trades I needed was a miscalculation.” Ty drew circles in the dirt in front of him. “Justin is a practical guy. I thought he’d let one or two small shipping issues slide, chalk them up to the cost of doing business. But not Justin.”

  Finn didn’t want to talk about Justin. Didn’t want Ty thinking about him. “What does that—”

  “I had a problem with my usual supplier. Seemed the guy grew a conscience and tried to go legitimate.” Ty shook his head. “He didn’t change a manifest to cover up the reduction in product to the charity. Unfortunately, Justin was watching and saw the discrepancy. It must have tipped him off, made him look closer, and now you’re here.”

  Finn’s heart stuttered in his chest. “Let me guess. That guy is dead.”

  “I don’t kill people.”

  Finn sensed that wasn’t quite true. “Says the man with the gun.”

  “I’ll use it if I have to.” Ty pushed to his feet and took a few steps back to lean against the uneven rock wall. “But back to your question. See, there’s no reason not to tell you now. The information isn’t going to help you.”

  “Because you’re going to kill me.” Finn didn’t need to ask. He knew the answer and it only made him pull harder at the tie binding his hands.

  “Let’s just say you won’t be talking to anyone.”


  “Lucky me.”

  “Lucky or smart? You investigated and focused in on the drivers. And then you called Billy, all upset. He apparently made quite a scene in the office, which is good, because it tipped off one of his men and he got nervous.” Ty smiled. “That man also happens to work for me.”

  The plan to draw out the person at the bottom of the trouble worked. But Finn didn’t really have the ability to celebrate that right now. “I feel for you. It’s hard to find good help these days.”

  “It seemed easy enough to start using your transports. Switch the charity shipments I used previously—other folks on the ground, mostly in Algeria—for yours. I thought I’d pass a few weapons under Justin’s watch and he’d write it off as the cost of doing business. But some of my people got sloppy.”

  “Your people.” Finn filed that information away for later.

  “The ones in charge of making sure everyone in the chain stayed loyal and everyone did their assigned job. They failed.”

  To think he originally liked Ty. Not anymore. “You poor thing.”

  “This isn’t the kind of operation one person can handle. There are people I need to pay off. Politicians to bribe. Security guards in Justin’s camp that feed me information on his, and more importantly your, whereabouts.” Ty’s head tipped to the side as if he wanted to make sure Finn picked up on the hint. “You really should have heeded the warning and left the region.”

  “Which warning?” Right now he was shifting around, moving as little as possible and trying to get the right leverage to break the tie.

  “I like you, Finn. I tried to help you by calling in a favor and having the council start talks to run you out of the country. Now you’ll be a casualty. One more person in the wrong place at the wrong time, but your death will help me. It will be the final excuse the council member on my payroll needs to push the Drummond Charities out. Bad PR for Morocco and all that. And I can’t imagine your company wanting to stick around over here after your body is found in pieces.” Ty whistled. “Nope.”

  That was not going to happen. Finn refused to let that happen. “Then you win because you get rid of Justin and the charity and anyone who may be onto you, but you lose the charity’s supplies. You’ll have to find another source to steal from.”